Looking South from Merchant Street along Territory Road – Oysterville, 1918

A few days ago I received a nice note from Mark Bennett, our former next door neighbor to the north — the only person who has ever lived on that property that we’ve actually known very well.  He wrote to see how things were going with us and, then, wrote again to ask if I could send copies of my monthly Observer columns which, he said, he misses.  Who knew?

Throughout my mother’s childhood, the property next door was the location the Stevens Hotel.  I think by that time (the second decade of the 20th century) Gilbert and Elvira Stevens were long gone and, perhaps, Andrew Wirt owned the property.  He was married (first) to the Stevens’ daughter and mom said the the hotel had become a “boarding house” for  bachelors.

John Crellin House with Stevens Hotel in background, c. 1920

During my own childhood, the property was just pastureland and our closest neighbors to the north were the Heckes family who lived in “the other Crellin House on the next block.  Immediately next door — the pasture — was where my grandfather’s last horse, Countess, spent part of her time.  Time, that is, when she wasn’t in the “Little Meadow” which is now known simply as “The Meadow” and  is  the site of Willard’s Bench.  I think the  Heckes family may have owned a small strip of the property just south of Merchant Street and across from their place — now where our neighbor Cyndy has built her lovely house.

In the 1980s, the Espy Family subdivided  this property that the family house sits on and sold that northern piece to the Hampsons (both doctors from Seattle) who built their retirement home there.  Unfortunately their health failed early on and I don’t think they ever were able to fully enjoy their time here.  When it sold again, it was to young business partners who were here now and then and who eventually included Mark.

Hampson House, 2006

I’m not sure when the house last sold — four years ago?  Five?  We’ve not yet “officially” met the new neighbors — only to wave to and, once early on, when Nyel was in the hospital in Seattle.  The retired  doctor half of the attorney/physician couple popped into Nyel’s room to introduce himself.  We look forward to getting to know them when their remodeling is complete and they begin spending time here.  “Soon,” we understand.

I wonder if they’ll be interested in the history of their property — at least the parts that we know about.  Sometimes neighbors are; sometimes not.  Or perhaps, like Mark, they’ll bring us clams or a salmon now and then and maybe they’ll come to our parties or our Friday Night Gatherings.  It’s hard to know with next door neighbors…